History TearJerker / Bastion

*** Finally, as you approach the Skyway, a single log falls from above to block your path, only to be smashed by a single hammer blow. To those poor simple beasts, that was probably their last line of defense.

* I don't know about you, but on a certain level, hearing Ruck's narration as The Kid makes his way through some ruins of the city, and finds tons of people, turned to statues of ash, brought tears to my eyes. Each one of those people has a name. Each and every one had their own life and their own dreams, and you find them all turned to ash, and Rucks remembers them all...

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* I don't know about you, but on a certain level, hearing Hearing Ruck's narration as The Kid makes his way through some ruins of the city, and finds tons of people, turned to statues of ash, brought tears to my eyes.ash. Each one of those people has a name. Each and every one had their own life and their own dreams, and you find them all turned to ash, and Rucks remembers them all...

* ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y9FQUzCZPg Zulf's Theme]]''. If the lyrics and minor key weren't enough, consider the context it's played in.** Arguably, if you choose to [[spoiler:take him with you]], the tone of the whole situation suddenly becomes much more optimistic and reinforces the SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome everyone's having. [[spoiler:Against all odds, despite everything up to this point, he's still getting saved. He probably doesn't know about it yet, or believe it, but he's gonna make it.]]

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* ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y9FQUzCZPg Zulf's Theme]]''. If the lyrics and minor key weren't enough, consider the context it's played in.** Arguably, if in. If you choose to [[spoiler:take him with you]], the tone of the whole situation suddenly becomes much more optimistic and reinforces the SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome everyone's having. [[spoiler:Against all odds, despite everything up to this point, he's still getting saved. He probably doesn't know about it yet, or believe it, but he's gonna make it.]]

** Zia [[spoiler: grew up without a mother and, since her father was busy working as a mancer, practically without him either. She's picked on by her Caelondian peers, but ends up falling in love with the one boy who sticks up for her. It turns out though that the boy is just trying to frame her and her father as traitors, and he tricks Zia into joining him in a false escape attempt by playing on her ignorance of Ura customs. They're caught and Zia's actions are used as leverage to force her father back into the mancers after he had left, which turns out to be the final push that convinces him to set off the Calamity.]]* Am I the only one who was sad about Weeping Nellie, the barge you ride at Langston River? I thought the narration there was really well done (heck, it was well done through the whole game), and got me to actually care about the barge for the brief time we worked together until "she" made something of a "heroic sacrifice" to get me to solid ground at the other side. Good storytelling.

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** Zia [[spoiler: grew up without a mother and, since her father was busy working as a mancer, practically without him either. She's picked on by her Caelondian peers, but ends up falling in love with the one boy who sticks up for her. It turns out though that the boy is just trying to frame her and her father as traitors, and he tricks Zia into joining him in a false escape attempt by playing on her ignorance of Ura customs. They're caught and Zia's actions are used as leverage to force her father back into the mancers after he had left, which turns out to be the final push that convinces him to set off the Calamity.]]* Am I the only one who was sad about Weeping Nellie, the barge you ride at Langston River? I thought the narration there was really well done (heck, it was well done through the whole game), and got me to actually care about the barge for the brief time we worked together until "she" made something of a "heroic sacrifice" to get me to solid ground at the other side. Good storytelling.]]

** Zia [[spoiler: grew up without a mother and, since her father was busy working as a mancer, practically without him either. She's picked on by her Caelondian peers, but ends up falling in love with the one boy who sticks up for her. It turns out though that the boy is just trying to frame her and her father as traitors, and he tricks Zia into joining him in a false escape attempt by playing on her ignorance of Ura customs. They're caught and Zia's actions are used as leverage to force her father back into the mancers after he had left, which turns out to be the final push that convinces him to set off the Calamity.]]

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** Zia [[spoiler: grew up without a mother and, since her father was busy working as a mancer, practically without him either. She's picked on by her Caelondian peers, but ends up falling in love with the one boy who sticks up for her. It turns out though that the boy is just trying to frame her and her father as traitors, and he tricks Zia into joining him in a false escape attempt by playing on her ignorance of Ura customs. They're caught and Zia's actions are used as leverage to force her father back into the mancers after he had left, which turns out to be the final push that convinces him to set off the Calamity.]]]]* Am I the only one who was sad about Weeping Nellie, the barge you ride at Langston River? I thought the narration there was really well done (heck, it was well done through the whole game), and got me to actually care about the barge for the brief time we worked together until "she" made something of a "heroic sacrifice" to get me to solid ground at the other side. Good storytelling.

* [[spoiler: Saving Zulf at the Terminals. The Kid casts aside his weapons and mobility and staggers his way through a corridor of enemies, all in a seemingly futile attempt to save the man who betrayed him. The Ura he's been fighting start firing on him, but once they realise what he's doing, their attacks falter out and they move aside to let him through, watching him silently with respect. One [[SociopathicSoldier poison archer]] ignores the cease fire and is immediately cut down by [[NobleDemon his superior.]]]]

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* [[spoiler: Saving Zulf at the Terminals. The Kid casts aside his weapons and mobility and staggers his way through a corridor of enemies, all in a seemingly futile attempt to save the man who betrayed him. The Ura he's been fighting start firing on him, but once they realise what he's doing, their attacks falter out and they move aside to let him through, watching him silently with respect. One [[SociopathicSoldier poison archer]] ignores the cease fire and is immediately cut down by [[NobleDemon his superior.]]]]]]]]* All of the Who Knows Where sequences, which each detail the downright heartbreaking backstories of The Kid, Zulf, and Zia.** The Kid [[spoiler: grows up with no father and a sickly mother, while being picked on and ostracized by his peers for his snow white hair. To support his mother, the Kid takes a tour on the Rippling Walls - a job that's so harsh that nobody has ever signed up for a second tour. Once he finishes, the Kid comes home to find his mother dead, and the money he had sent home gone. With nothing else to turn to, he simply goes back to the walls, and becomes the first person ever to sign up for a second tour.]]** Zulf [[spoiler: is saved from his life as a homeless orphan by a Caelondian missionary living in the Terminals, and becomes convinced that he can bridge the gap between the Ura and Caelondians. The kicker is that he actually succeeds: he befriends many Caelondians, and even falls in love with and becomes engaged to a Caelondian woman. However the night after she accepts his proposal, the Calamity hits, and Zulf's life work is undone before his eyes. Everybody he came to know and love is dead, and when there seems to be a small spot of hope when he sees his fiance asleep in her bed, it turns she is also dead, as she turns to ash when he reaches out to her. With absolutely nothing left to live for, Zulf goes to the Hanging Gardens where him and his fiance used to take walks, and stands poised to jump to his death until the Kid intervenes. And that's all before he learns it was undone as the result of a Caelondian weapon.]]** Zia [[spoiler: grew up without a mother and, since her father was busy working as a mancer, practically without him either. She's picked on by her Caelondian peers, but ends up falling in love with the one boy who sticks up for her. It turns out though that the boy is just trying to frame her and her father as traitors, and he tricks Zia into joining him in a false escape attempt by playing on her ignorance of Ura customs. They're caught and Zia's actions are used as leverage to force her father back into the mancers after he had left, which turns out to be the final push that convinces him to set off the Calamity.]]

* [[spoiler: Saving Zulf at the Terminals. The Kid casts aside his weapons and mobility and staggers his way through a corridor of enemies, all in a seemingly futile attempt to save the man who betrayed him. The Ura he's been fighting start firing on him, but once they realise what he's doing, their attacks falter out and they move aside to let him through, watching him silently with respect.]]

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* [[spoiler: Saving Zulf at the Terminals. The Kid casts aside his weapons and mobility and staggers his way through a corridor of enemies, all in a seemingly futile attempt to save the man who betrayed him. The Ura he's been fighting start firing on him, but once they realise what he's doing, their attacks falter out and they move aside to let him through, watching him silently with respect.]] One [[SociopathicSoldier poison archer]] ignores the cease fire and is immediately cut down by [[NobleDemon his superior.]]]]

* [[spoiler: Leaving Zulf at the Terminals. Bonus-the song that plays when you fight your way to the skyway is him ''singing his funerary song''.]]

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* [[spoiler: Leaving Zulf at the Terminals. Bonus-the song that plays when you fight your way to the skyway is him ''singing his funerary song''.]]* [[spoiler: Saving Zulf at the Terminals. The Kid casts aside his weapons and mobility and staggers his way through a corridor of enemies, all in a seemingly futile attempt to save the man who betrayed him. The Ura he's been fighting start firing on him, but once they realise what he's doing, their attacks falter out and they move aside to let him through, watching him silently with respect.]]

** Arguably, if you choose to [[spoiler:take him with you]], the tone of the whole situation suddenly becomes much more optimistic and reinforces the CMoA everyone's having. [[spoiler:Against all odds, despite everything up to this point, he's still getting saved. He probably doesn't know about it yet, or believe it, but he's gonna make it.]]

to:

** Arguably, if you choose to [[spoiler:take him with you]], the tone of the whole situation suddenly becomes much more optimistic and reinforces the CMoA SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome everyone's having. [[spoiler:Against all odds, despite everything up to this point, he's still getting saved. He probably doesn't know about it yet, or believe it, but he's gonna make it.]]

** The point that really makes the exit from Mount Zand sad is that, after you take the Shard, you're beset by a final pack of Wild beasts, including two of the giant flower creature seen in Jawson Bog. You can try to fight them, but Rucks's narration will say that the Kid doesn't need to deal with them anymore. The proper answer is to just run to the Skyway and leave. The beasts of the Wild don't even get to have their last stand.

to:

** The point that really makes the exit from Mount Zand sad is that, after you take the Shard, you're beset by a final pack of Wild beasts, including two of the giant flower creature seen in Jawson Bog. You can try to fight them, but Rucks's narration will say that the Kid doesn't need to deal with them anymore. The proper answer is to just run to the Skyway and leave. The beasts of the Wild don't even get to have their last stand.stand.* [[spoiler: Leaving Zulf at the Terminals. Bonus-the song that plays when you fight your way to the skyway is him ''singing his funerary song''.]]

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